Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn President Bill Clendaniel Retires | Page 22

People and Happenings
Far left: Painting in original condition before con-
servation. Left: View of Forest Pond, Mount
Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachu-
setts, c. 1840s. Oil on canvas, 14-1/4 x 181/4
inches, after conservation.
Chambers Painting
of Vanished Pond
Acquired
By Meg Winslow, Curator of Historical Collections
Chambers Painting
Unveiled
On June 3 the newly cleaned and conserved
Thomas Chambers painting View of Forest
Pond, was unveiled. Meg Winslow, Curator of
Historical Collections, and Bill Clendaniel show
off the new acquisition.
We are enormously pleased that, thanks to many generous donations, we have recently
acquired an oil painting attributed to Thomas Chambers, an itinerant painter who
lived in Boston during the mid-19th century. The painting depicts an area within the
Cemetery once known as Forest Pond. This work was said to have been inspired by an
engraving of Mount Auburn by William Henry Bartlett. Although the pond itself no
longer exists—having been filled in during the early 20th century—the scene, with its
marble monuments, sloping hillsides and lush tree canopy, is recognizable today. This is
just a wonderful purchase for Mount Auburn. The Cemetery has several hand-painted
versions of the Bartlett print and a newly acquired and quite unique chalk-and-charcoal
study of the same location. These works all depict, in different media, a beautiful and
picturesque area of Mount Auburn that was much loved by artists.
Birch Gardens – the Landscape
Takes Shape
By Candace Currie
Director of Planning & Cemetery Development
Birch Gardens—a shared memorial designed by Halvorson
Design Partnership of Boston—continues to take shape
here at Mount Auburn (see photo at right), on schedule
for an opening later this year. Situated along the Coolidge
Avenue side of the Cemetery, Birch Gardens provides space
for unique personal inscriptions on “headstones” directly
in front of corresponding burial areas planted with trees,
shrubs and pe-
rennials. These
plantings create
“garden rooms”
offering privacy
and an abiding
place for solace
and reflection
within the
Cemetery. Even
those looking
in from Coolidge Avenue, driving or walking, will be able
experience its beauty. Plantings for Birch Gardens were
chosen for the times their flowers bloom, their leaf color in
fall, and, for groundcovers, their appearance throughout the
20 | Sweet Auburn
year. Plantings were also reviewed for their attractiveness
as bird habitat, their status as native species, and whether
they would expand the diversity of Mount Auburn’s plant
collections. In all, about 50 new trees, hundreds of shrubs
and thousands of perennials have been planted. All of these
plants have been carefully selected and positioned such that
the “face” of each shadblow (Amelanchier grandiflora), paper-
bark maple (Acer griseum) and London planetree (Platanus x
acerifolia), for example, welcomes visitors into each room.
Whatever reason draws you to Mount Auburn we invite
you, as a member of broader community, to enjoy these
magnificent new gardens.